Anna Kendrick Got Her ‘Cups’ Trick From Pitch Perfect From Reddit, Of All Places

Did you know that Anna Kendrick is a Redditor? I learned this after I started following this adorable, pint-size, badass actress after loving her in Pitch Perfect. Although several celebrities have accounts that they actual maintain (like Zach Braff), Anna is more low-key in her Reddit pride, instead dropping references into her tweets. On September 24th, she wrote,

Every time I talk to a fancy journalist and they ask what I do in my free time my scumbag brain goes “say masturbate, it’ll be hilarious”

Considering that Reddit has its own subreddit dedicated to Anna, it’s no surprise that someone screencapped her tweet and uploaded it. The next day, she celebrated this Reddit honor:

Holy balls my tweet is on the front page of r/funny? Dying happy now.

Now, I still can’t find Anna’s account, but in this interview with David Letterman she reveals that she’s been a Redditor for quite some time. See, in Pitch Perfect her anti-establishment character Beca attends the a capella audition, but instead of singing “Since U Been Gone” like everyone else, she does this cool bit with cups and sings a haunting song. I thought this was something that Anna made up on her own, but she told Dave that she was actually inspired by a video she found on Reddit one night ages ago.

It’s really impressive how she recreates it for Dave! The original seems to be a viral video by two girls calling themselves Lulu and the Lampshades. I’ve known about this sleight-of-hand since a sophomore year sleepover where we got Baskin Robbins in the middle of the night and someone demonstrated the trick, but I’ve never seen it done with a song. So, kudos to all! Especially ’cause it’s heartwarming to see something come out of Reddit involving a girl and a cup that’s not the other video we associate with those participants.